What does diarrhea look like in babies?

Diarrhea is a common condition in babies. If the baby's daily diet is unhygienic or stale, he may suffer from diarrhea. Babies with diarrhea should go to the hospital in time to check the cause and receive timely symptomatic treatment. They should eat some easily digestible foods on a daily basis, such as rice porridge, egg drop soup, pasta and other foods, and avoid eating hot peppers, cold foods, or fried foods. What does baby diarrhea look like? Let’s take a look at it next.

1. Diarrhea is often accompanied by symptoms - mild

The onset can be slow or acute, with gastrointestinal symptoms as the main symptoms, loss of appetite, occasional galactorrhea or vomiting, increased frequency of bowel movements (3 to 10 times/day) and changes in bowel characteristics; symptoms of systemic acidosis without dehydration, and most patients recover within a few days. It is often caused by dietary factors and extraintestinal infections. In children with rickets or malnutrition, diarrhea is mild but often persistent and may be followed by other diseases. Children may show weakness, paleness, and loss of appetite. A small number of white blood cells can be seen in stool microscopy.

2. Diarrhea is often accompanied by symptoms - severe

The disease often starts acutely, but can also gradually worsen and transform from a mild form. In addition to severe gastrointestinal symptoms, there are also more obvious symptoms of dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, and systemic poisoning (fever, irritability, mental depression, drowsiness, and even coma and shock). It is mostly caused by intestinal infection.

3. Gastrointestinal symptoms

Vomiting is common, and in severe cases, the patient may vomit coffee-colored liquid, have a poor appetite, and have frequent diarrhea. The patient may have ten to dozens of bowel movements a day. Most of the stools are yellow watery or egg-drop-like, containing a small amount of mucus. A few children may also have a small amount of blood in their stools.

4. Dehydration

Due to the loss of fluid due to vomiting and diarrhea and insufficient intake, the total fluid volume, especially the extracellular fluid volume, is reduced, leading to varying degrees of dehydration (see Table 1). Due to the different proportions of water and electrolytes lost by children with diarrhea, isotonic, hypotonic or hypertonic dehydration may occur (see Table 2), with the first two being more common.

5. Metabolic acidosis

Generally parallels the degree of dehydration. In mild cases, there are no obvious symptoms, while in severe cases, there may be a pale face, cherry red lips, deep and rapid breathing, listlessness, irritability, and even coma. According to blood CO2CP, it is divided into mild (18-13mmol/L), moderate (13-9mmol/L), and severe (<9mmol/L).

6. Hypokalemia

It is more common in patients with acute diarrhea and dehydration after partial correction, or in patients with chronic diarrhea and malnutrition accompanied by diarrhea. The clinical manifestations are mental depression, decreased muscle tone, weakened tendon reflexes, abdominal distension, weakened bowel sounds, accelerated heart rate, and dull heart sounds; serum potassium <3.5mmo1/L; electrocardiogram shows broadened, flat, and inverted T waves, and the presence of U waves and arrhythmias.

7. Hypocalcemia and hypomagnesemia

If children with active rickets develop convulsions after dehydration and acidosis are corrected, the possibility of hypocalcemia should be considered. When calcium supplements are ineffective, the possibility of hypomagnesemia should be considered. The normal value of blood magnesium is 0.74-0.99mmol/L (1.8-2.4mg/dl). If it is less than 0.58mmol/L (1.4mg/dl), convulsions or tetany may occur.